A couple of days ago I was riding on a Metro North commuter train behind a group of teenagers who were loudly discussing something.  I say something because I could not make out their topic as it was drowned out by the word “like” appearing three or more times in every sentence.  Now I am generally not language obsessed and English is my second language, but the complete lack of expressiveness among the teenagers and their constant substitution of “like” for more complicated words or expressions was a bit horrifying.  Maybe I was more worried than warranted because the week before I had accidentally run across CBS broadcasting mixed martial arts.  Between the two, I suddenly found myself wondering whether Idiocracy was wrong in it’s premise that it would take 500 years of dumbing down for a hibernated “average” American to become the most intelligent person alive.  At the present rate, 50 years seems more like it (yes, it’s perfectly OK to use the word “like” occasionally). To do my own little piece to stem the decline, I have now taken to correcting my kids whenever they use “like” as a meaningless filler or to avoid having to think of the correct word.